The present invention relates to electrical assembly including an electrical connector and an electrical test module. More specifically, the invention relates to an electrical assembly including an electrical connector having recessed contacts adapted for electrical connection with protruding contacts on a test module for diagnostic testing of a circuit board connected to the electrical connector and adapted to remain spaced from a conventional module.
An example of a conventional electrical connector and grounding shroud therefor is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,478,260, (hereinafter the '260 patent) issued on Dec. 26, 1995, to John W. Kaufman et al. The invention disclosed in the '260 patent includes an electrical connector assembly for a card reader including a housing having opposed major and minor sides that define a card receiving mouth. The connector has a plurality of conductive electrical terminals disposed in the housing with portions extending into the receiving mouth. The invention disclosed in the '260 patent further includes a conductive shroud encircling the housing that has inwardly spaced contact portions extending into the mouth along at least one of the major sides of the housing. The conductive shroud includes shroud contact portions being spaced from the electrical terminal portions when the shroud is assembled to the housing. The inwardly spaced contact portions are spring fingers extending into the mouth from an edge of the shroud or dimples expressed into the mouth from an outer surface of the shroud. At least one of the major walls of the housing includes a plurality of shroud contact receiving recesses adapted to receive the shroud contact portions. The shroud contact portions are closely adjacent a card receiving space thereby being positioned to be either electrically engaged by corresponding raised conductive surfaces on an outwardly facing conductive surface of a shielded card upon insertion of the shielded card into the mouth, or to remain spaced from surfaces of an unshielded card upon inserting the unshielded card into the mouth.
The electrical connector is electrically connected to a circuit board. Conventionally, in order to perform diagnostic tests on the circuit board, the device in which the connector and circuit board is housed must be disassembled to gain access to the circuit board. This procedure is labor intensive and therefore costly.
Consequently, a need exists for an electrical connector that is configured to allow diagnostic testing on a circuit board without disassembling the device. Further, there exists a need for a complementary test card that fits within the electrical connector and is configured to electrically receive the diagnostic information from the electrical connector. The electrical connector should be able to accept both the test card and a conventional card so as not to interfere with the normal operation of the electrical connector.